Crutchlow talks Marquez talent
Cal Crutchlow has talked up the talents of fellow HRC man and MotoGP championship leader Marc Marquez, stating the 24-year old's cornering technique regularly leaves him amazed each time they share a track.
A fellow late-braking specialist, that always demands the maximum from the front end of his machine, Crutchlow's style could be viewed as similar to Marquez's, as both men usually opt for the hardest front tyre available.
Three-time premier class champion Marquez even went as far as to say, "Me and Cal have quite a similar style on the entry of the corner, on the brake pressure," during a test at Montmel? that preceded the Italian Grand Prix at Mugello.
Speaking during the Dutch TT at Assen, Crutchlow explained that if he and other Honda riders Dani Pedrosa, Jack Miller and Tito Rabat attempted to corner in a similar fashion to the 24-year old, they could pull it off once in an entire weekend. Marquez on the other hand, is able to do it at each bend.
"Every corner he does, he does better than every single other Honda rider," Crutchlow said. "You have no idea how he rides. Sure, my riding style is more close to him in certain areas, my style is more like his, but his lean angle, how he enters the corner, how much he closes the front tyre and how much he slides on the exit and stuff like that [is amazing]... And he stays on the bike.
"Honestly, what he does every corner of every lap of the track in every race and every test, me, Dani, Jack and Tito can probably do one corner per whole race weekend, the way he does every corner. And the next time he goes down, he gets back up. It's just the way he rides. It's just special."
Crutchlow went on to say Marquez has been "playing with" his championship rivals in the season's first half in the wake of his astonishing eighth successive triumph at the Sachsenring, which carried him to the championship lead for the first time in 2017.
In an exclusive interview with Crash.net in April, Crutchlow had spoken of Marquez's ability to ride around a myriad of problems, a feat that also defined Casey Stoner's time in the premier class, especially in those four years at Ducati that stretched from 2007 to '10.
Crutchlow feels that one of the reasons HRC has given him a factory contract for '17 and '18 is to develop a machine that is easier to manage, which will in turn allow future class rookies to adapt to the premier class in quicker fashion.
"The two guys that everybody says are freaks on bikes, completely the most talented, are Marc and Casey. And they are the only ones that have been able to manage [this bike].
"But maybe that's also one of my jobs, to try and help build a bike that's easier to ride. Because when they go and take some of these younger riders in some years, hopefully they will find it easier to adapt to this bike.
"They are working hard on that, it's just when. At the moment Marc is the only one competitive week-in, week-out."
